Style Over Substance

Are you a good writer? What is a good writer? Is it possible to write well but say nothing? At what point does style begin to encroach on substance? That is, when does how you say something override the substance of what you are saying?

Some people loose sight of the fact that just because someone has a persuasive demeanor or way of saying things, does not mean what they are saying has any underlying metaphysical truth. Without trying to define metaphysical truth, I think it is possible to discuss the way we communicate without delving into the message.

There are various tools that the propagandist utilizes to fool the unwary. Repetition, simplicity, imagery, sentiment to name but four (see this site here). Add to that selective coverage, semantics, charged buzzwords, statistics, omission, exceptions to the rule, out of context, exaggeration, inference, and outright in-your-face lying.

On the other hand, presenting an argument in a clumsy, inarticulate way does not mean there is truth either. But intelligent, critical thinking people need to be able to separate out the message from the medium and not be fooled by the smooth, but insubstantial, writer.

Aloha!

All the Fits that Sports

A couple of short notes on sports from the weekend. Lakers win! Lakers Win! Sorry Doc Jim, but the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team beat the Portland Trailblazers three games to none in the first round of the playoffs. In watching the last game, I thought Portland was going to win but the Lakers somehow found a way through.

Warriors lose! Warriors lose! The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball lost the league championship over the weekend, but still got an at-large invitation to the NCAA final four tournament. Good luck to the Warriors.

Passing Gas

I see that the US Senate's Permanent Investigations Subcommittee (I didn't know they had a permanent committee on investigations - ed) has issued a report (see it here). Some of the findings include what appears to be, gasp, manipulation of the supply to increase prices. I am shocked! Who could have known? Some of the findings are below:

5. High concentration exacerbates the factors that allow price spikes and increases, a key one of which is the tightness of supply.

6. In concentrated markets refiners can affect the price of gasoline by their decisions on the amount of supply. In a number of instances, refiners have sought to increase prices by reducing supply.

7. Highly concentrated retail markets have higher retail prices.

8. Markets in which there is a high degree of vertical integration between refiners and marketers have higher wholesale and retail prices.

9. Oil companies do not set wholesale (rack) or retail prices based solely upon the cost to manufacture and sell gasoline; rather wholesale (rack) and retail prices are set on the basis of market conditions, including the prices of competitors. Most oil companies and gasoline stations try to keep their prices at a constant price difference with respect to one or more competitors. As a result of these interdependent practices, gasoline prices of oil companies tend to go up and down together.

11. Oil companies use zone pricing to charge different prices for gasoline to different station operators, some of which are in nearby geographic areas, in order to confine price competition to the smallest area possible and to maximize their prices and revenues at each retail outlet.

12. For the many stations owned or leased by the major oil companies, it is the major oil company rather than the local dealer that determines the competitive price position of the local station and that benefits from higher prices and profit margins.

Once again, we find where there is competition, the market operates as it should (i.e., supply and demand determines price). But where there is integrated markets, where competition is lacking, the market becomes distorted and pricing is fixed by a small number of organizations. This leads to higher prices to consumers, and higher profits to companies and their stock holders (which is the whole point, and the main objective, of the exercise as far as the companies are concerned. I've said it before and I'll say it again, big companies don't want competition. This is not a value judgment and I am not anti-business. It is a simple statement of fact. It the natural progression of things. It is also a Bad Thing(tm)).

A closed mind gathers no facts. - Aloha!

Lei Day

May 1st is Lei Day in Hawai'i. Well, where else would you have a day celebrating the garlands of aloha (see this site here)?

Simple Minds

The local legislature is set to act on the problem of high gasoline prices (yes, I know you Euro's pay more, but most of that is related to taxes added by your respective governments as a way to engineer your behavior and raise money for their social programs). Their answer? Price controls. Hmmm. Of all the ways to lower prices, such as increasing the sources by buying refined fuel from the mainland or Asia, the legislature goes with price controls. Sigh.

If this actually gets implemented, expect gas shortages and lines of people waiting to get what little they can find. I guess we'll never learn.

The Dog Formerly Known as Forgea

Of all the things that are important in this world, one wonders why so many people are interested in the fate of one dog. Heck, these people can't even get the dog's name right (hint to these bleeding heart predominately white liberals: the letter "r" is not usually used in Chinese. If you see it used, it's probably because a non-Chinese speaking person added it in.)

In either case, tomorrow sometime, the dog will arrive to a media frenzy not seen since the sinking of the Ehime Maru. All the major networks and news organizations such as CNN will be there. Even the "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno wants the dog on the show (how do you interview a dog? Why do you want to interview a dog?).

Now, don't get the wrong impression, I love dogs. I'm a dog person even. But what are our priorities here? Bark, bark.

Virus Flytrap

I was getting a little jealous that others were getting emails with the W32.Klez virus while I got nothing. Well, I got one this morning! Or, I should say, the Norton Anti-Virus program snagged one sent my way this morning. This virus seems to be flooding the 'net right now (see this story here) so if you don't have any anti-virus protection, it may be a good time to get some. For those of you that already have something, make sure to update your definitions to the latest version as there an various Klez versions coming out all the time.

In either case, do not open any emails with attachments. Even if sent by someone you know (unless they have already made arrangements with you that they would be sending something). In fact, if you use Outlook or Outlook Express and have the preview pane operating, just previewing some of these viruses can cause problems. So be alert.

Star Wars

NASA's Hubble telescope recently took some images (see more here) of which one is below. A lot of things have gone wrong with NASA and this telescope. But then, a lot has gone right too and sometimes we forget that no one else has anything like it in space. So congratulations to the entire Hubble team.

I am tolerant of your fruitcake-like beliefs. - Aloha!

Alert 1! Alert 1! Action Message Follows

I received yesterday an email (see below) that purported to be from PayPal. As you can see, the email says there was a systems failure and I would need to enter my information (I assume information like bank account or credit card number). I have no independent confirmation that this is a hoax, but clicking on the link in the email gives a message saying "The subdomain name you are trying to access has been cancelled." ZDOS.com

ZDOS.com apparently provides redirection services. That is, you type in one URL but are actually redirected to another completely different site.

If you should get a similar message, I would check first with PayPal directly rather than clicking on a link and giving out ANY information.

From help@paypal.com Tue, 30 Apr 2002 22:20:49 -0700
From: "Paypal.com" <help@paypal.com>
To: Dan Seto
Subject: Your Paypal.com Account is on HOLD
Sender: "Paypal.com" <help@paypal.com>
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 11:17:20 +0500
Reply-To: "Paypal.com" <help@paypal.com>

Dear Sir,

We regret to inform you that due to system failure we have lost our backups of all accounts, so most of accounts are on HOLD status, including yours, if you want to continue our service without any trouble, then you are advised to please go to following Paypal.com page and enter your information, so that we can update your account information.

Please go to: http://[paypal-inc.com] (New window will open)

If you do not want to enter information, then your account will be automatically DELETED after 3rd May 2002

We really appreciate your help in this mater.

Regards,

David John

Head Customer Support Department

Paypal.com

--------------

To: Daynotes Back Channel
From: Brian Bilbrey
Subject: Re: [DAYNOTES] Possible Fake PayPal Email
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 18:58:58 -0700

Indeed it is. All of the headers are forged, to appear as though they were from the legitimate paypal.com

Note that the link is to paypal-inc.com is NOT the same domain.

Arin tells me that the originator of your scam-mail is to be found in the apnic (Asia Pacific Network Information Center). So I trundle off to http://www.apnic.net and put that IP in. The apparent source of the message is someplace in Pakistan.

www.apnic.net

(you may need to reassemble that URL, depending on how your MUA wraps text)

regards,

.brian

-- 
Brian Bilbrey                    "The ships hung in the sky in
bilbrey at orbdesigns dot com     much the same way that bricks don't."
www.orbdesigns.com                Doug Adams, H2G

--------------

Thanks Brian. A scholar and a gentleman.

It's Friday!

EOF

I have a 10-page paper due for class on Monday and a bunch of stuff for work so I gotta go. Below are a few links to keep you busy:

The Washington Post has an article (see it here) about a federal judge's ruling that it is unconstitutional for a Tennessee courthouse to display a copy of the Ten Commandments (see the opinion here. Note it is in pdf format and is about 6MB.). I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am a Christian. But I also believe in the Constitution because it gives equal protection to all people. As such, I have to agree that a plaque showing the Christian Ten Commandments does not belong on the wall of the courthouse just as it would be inappropriate to display something similar from any other religion. Why? Because it is the government promoting one religion over all others, even if it's the one I happen to believe in.

I would guess that had the county created a secular display in which the commandments were but one, among other types of rules or laws, the court would have found otherwise. But since this was the sole display, and the supporting documents indicated the intent was to promote this as a religious document, to the exclusions of all others, the court had no choice but to rule as it did. [Insert standard Disclaimer here. -ed]

Speaking of Crusaders, the Army Technology website has an article (see it here) on the Crusader 155mm self-propelled howitzer. It's fire control system can calculate 8 simultaneous trajectories such that the eight rounds would impact at the same point at the same time. I'm not sure how often you would want that many rounds coming in at the same time but if you had a need for that, this is for you.

Speaking of the heavens, Cosmiverse has an interesting article (see it here) on the life cycle of stars (no, this is not the story of Britney).

White dwarf stars have long fascinated astronomers, but haven't previously caught the imagination of planet finders. To understand white dwarfs is to see the life cycle of the stars.

Two Penn State infrared astronomers have proposed that prospects for finding planets around white dwarfs are likely, especially by pointing future infrared telescopes to any white dwarfs that prove particularly rich in heavy metals.

Speaking of spectacular explosions, if you get frustrated every time Mozilla blows up, think what it would be like to program the Ariane 5 rocket and find out there's a small bug. One that blows the rocket up. These and other Really Important Bugs(tm) are listed here at this German site.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!